opening btrieve .dat files

[Andy Gee]

Hi All --

I have a set of .DAT files from a custom database which I understand is in
a BTRIEVE format. I've searched high and low and can't seem to find an
application that can put these data files into any sort of table or
columnar form. I've downloaded the trial of PSQL v9 server but that
doesn't seem to help. Any apps or suggestions would be sincerely
appreciated.

Thanks in advance --

--ag

Please feel free respond on the group and/or to and...@interport.net

[Bill Bach]

To get an idea of what you are really trying to do, go to:
www.goldstarsoftware.com/press.asp
and select the white paper on ODBC access of Btrieve files.

This explains the basic concepts and will help you get started.
Goldstar Software Inc.
Pervasive-based Products, Training & Services
Bill Bach
Bill...@goldstarsoftware.com
http://www.goldstarsoftware.com
*** Austin: Pervasive Service & Support Class - 05/2006 ***
*** Chicago: Pervasive Service & Support Class - 07/2006 ***

[Geoff Barnard]

Not sure what a 'btrieve .dat' file is, there seems to be no formal
filename entension for btrieve files. '.dat' is prob as good as
anything.

The working system may well have BUTIL available. This will operate
assuming the BTRIEVE module is loaded. BUTIL -STAT <filename.ext> will
give you a bit of info about the file, and confirm that it is BTRIEVE.
You could also use the -SAVE option to create an ASCII version of the
file, but note this will not interpret the records, nor will it convert
any binary data therein (like numbers).

To do what you want, you'll need an associated file that may contain the
full record format (may be a .DDF), or you'll have to do a lot of
detective work on the binary (or mixed binary and ASCII data) to
determine the data you want, so you can write a prog to extract it.

I have done this latter, incl a project I'm working on right now, but
you do need access to the working system so that you can confirm what
data is what. Also, all the systems I've worked on so far seem to have
some (intentional ?) perversions (I assume to make what I was doing more
difficult) like for example the storing of date info in a weird format,
or some other numbers likewise. A system I'm looking at now has the
decimal value 1234 stored as two bytes, with the first byte containing
hex 12 and the second hex 34.

Another utility I've used is something called BTFILER, this does much of
what BUTIL does but is a little more helpful - BUT again, it cannot
interpret the data in any way.

If the data in the files is compressed, or uses variable length records,
or is encrypted, then you're really stuck. I assume you've used a hex
editor on the files and have seen recognisable data there (even if mixed
in with blocks of index data), and I also assume you have some idea
about what the data in there should be??

Geoff Barnard - not not but net

www.data-sage.co.uk

[nelsonsoft]

Andy,

If you need to build the DDF files for your existing Btrieve files you
can take a look at BtSearch at www.nssdd.com. It will help you analyze
the structure including the binary data and then build the DDF files.

Gil